Captain Charisma Legal Battle

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Source: pwinsider

According to papers filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, WWE is opposing William Reso's (Christian's) applications to trademark the name "Captain Charisma" for "goods and services relating to professional wrestling".

WWE's claims is that their contract with Christian included a stipulation that, with the exception of what was agreed upon as being "Old Intellectual Property", that any ring name or nickname used by the wrestler during the time Christian was under contract is the property of WWE. Captain Charisma, which first came into use while he was under a WWE deal, is not listed as "Old Intellectual Property" according to WWE.

WWE also states that the agreement with Christian included the stipulation that any ring name or nickname used while he was under contract is owned in "perpetuity" by WWE, even once Christian's contract with WWE expired.

WWE is claiming to be the rightful owner of the "Captain Charisma" mark, and that Christian's attempts to trademark it will cause "confusion in the marketplace" and that WWE will suffer damages if he is allowed to trademark it.

According to a document mailed out on August 10th, Christian has forty days from that date to respond to WWE's opposition of his attempting to trademark the name.

Obviously, WWE is still stinging over the fact that they lost Christian Cage. Since this is technically a verbal agreement on Captain Charisma and WWE used the "verbal agreements are not valid" arguement against Team 3D, I predict that Christian Cage will win this legal battle.

[randomranter]

Sad but true:

Vince's team of schysters will probably find a way to say that "verbal agreements are valid" here, even though they argued the exact opposite point vs. the dudleys. And they'll probably win.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Also....may I add that trademark laws are very tricky and easy to get by. In trademark laws, it doesnt matter how it is pronounced, it only matters how it is written. We learned that when WWE failed to stop TNA from using the name "Rhino" because WWE only owns the name "Rhyno".

If you fight the big bad wwe with a single letter difference, wwe will lose.

[Ass Dan]

Cage is going to win this one. WWE never trademarked it, end of story.

[jcdenton]

randomranter said:

Sad but true:

Vince's team of schysters will probably find a way to say that "verbal agreements are valid" here, even though they argued the exact opposite point vs. the dudleys. And they'll probably win.

I doubt it, once presidince has been set, its nearly inpossable to reverse it, and if they did team 3d would be able to take back there old name

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

I doubt it, once presidince has been set, its nearly inpossable to reverse it, and if they did team 3d would be able to take back there old name

Agreed, like I have said before you have to be careful when doing a trademark lawsuit because any statement you use then can be used in another case.

[8.2.11/SAVIOR_NEZ]

Didn't WWE have trademarking issues with "Captian Charisma" when Christian Cage was still with the company? I seem to recall them having to pull his shirts from the shelves. I could be mistaken, but I swear they did this.

[Chilly McFreeze]

I think there was an indy wrestler who used the nickname before Christian. Don't know if they ever had it trademarked, though...

['Sweet n' Sour' A. A. Estrada]

If they wanted to win this, couldn't they just try and drag it out until Christian can't afford legal fees?

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

No...unfortunately for WWE.

['Sweet n' Sour' A. A. Estrada]

zillawrath said:

No...unfortunately for WWE.

What do they even need it for, anyways?

It's not like they can just slap the gimmick on someone else and expect it to fly.

[amsiraK]

They do it so, ostensibly, someone can't rise to fame in their company, using a nickname they came up with, and then book off, using it to make themselves more money elsewhere.

It's an intellectual property issue. Sort of like if, say, Mark Hamill wanted to star in a sitcom as Luke Skywalker without George Lucas. (or, say, some dorky rap dude wanted to make a raunchy album under that name. ;D) Hamill may be Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but that doesn't give him the right to boogey off with it afterward, using someone else's copyright to make more money.

But in this case, I think the E is going to lose. I DO remember an indy wrestler fighting them as he already had the copyright. They had to yank the shirts, but still called him it for free on the shows. And if that's true, they will probably be told to go pound salt.

[Jake Robert's Dealer!!!]

This is what I respect about guys like Christian, Warrior, and Honky Tonk Man.

WWE tried to screw them with schyster tactics to give up their names and Warrior and HTM kicked WWE in the balls, I cant wait until Christian does it to them when the judge rules in his favor.

PHUCK WWE !!!!!!!1

[nisi]

thegame said:

I think there was an indy wrestler who used the nickname before Christian. Don't know if they ever had it trademarked, though...

I think that was the indy wrestler "Chris Cage," who actually wrestled some WWE jobber detail, not "Captain Charisma."

[A Platypus Rave]

Chris Cage was in OVW.

but there was a problem with the nickname Captain Charisma, which is why they pulled the shirts, as far as I heard anyway

[nisi]

skellman said:

Chris Cage was in OVW.

That's what I'm talkin bout, thank you.

[dennisisevil]

Damn Vince McMahon is a vindictive twat. It's disgusting our legal system is being tied up with bullshit like this while there's a backlog of plenty of legitimate cases. Just throw that senile old trouserstain in the nursing home and get it over with so he can tell other geezers about how his grandkids never visit while he craps his pants and watches matlock.

[lovingway]

I am still wondering why he just can't go by Christian. I didn't think that WWE could trademark actual real names, especially since he is/was wrestling as Christian Cage and some religious people might have a problem with a pro wrestling company owning the rights to the word "Christian"

[EJS]

The problem with the t-shirts was the "THATS HOW I ROLL" on the back, not the Captain Charisma part. But the shirts were back on the shelves after a couple weeks, anyway.

[Cactus Jack]

I hope Christian wins.


And I thought his first name was Jason, not William?